More chip companies lower revenue forecasts

A further tranche of electronics companies have revised their revenue projections downwards.

Citing weakness in demand for its products, San Diego-based comms IC player Applied Micro Circuits warned that it is expecting Q1 fiscal 2002 revenue of between $40m and $45m compared with $121.1m in Q4.

Dave Rickey, chairman, CEO and president, said: "Current business conditions continue to be very poor. New order activity has remained weak throughout the quarter and our overall backlog has declined.

"The magnitude of this downturn is greater than we, or our customers, anticipated and slower than they originally thought."

The news follows revisions from fellow comms player Vitesse Semiconductor, which expects Q3 sales of $60m, a level which would be around half that of Q2. It says inventories at customers remain high and the process of reducing them is taking longer than expected.

But it ruled out further job cuts as being unnecessary at this stage, having shed 12% of its 1280 workforce in May.

And Synplicity, a supplier of software for the design and verification of semiconductors, says it expects revenue of $12.4m for Q2. For the full year, it says sales will be up 43% on 2000's $34.5m rather than the 60% it had earlier projected.